Epic Real Estate Investing - $199 Billion Gone And YOU Werent Supposed to See It | 1509

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Host Matt explores how Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) continues to drive aggressive cost-cutting and anti-corruption efforts in government, even after Musk’s departure. He covers the ongoing influence of Musk’s original team, the billions saved, the controversial access to Social Security data, and the spread of Doge-inspired reforms to other states. Matt also shares a unique offer for listeners to join him in Vegas and learn his real estate business system. Tune in for a fast-paced look at government reform, tech culture, and big opportunities. BUT BEFORE THAT, hear about Trump’s new moves, and big bets on OIL! Useful links: https://myescapebook.com/escape-2?video=0KDH7rzZZWk https://epicearnwhileyoulearn.com/yfd?video=0KDH7rzZZWk https://intensive2025.com/?video=0KDH7rzZZWk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. Hey, strap in. It's time for the epic real estate investing show. We'll be your guides as we navigate the housing market, the landscape of creative financing strategies, and everything you need to swap that office chair for a beach chair. If you're looking for some one-on-one help, meet us at rei-aise.com. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Let's go. Elon may be gone, but his spirit. lives on, that spirit has a name, Schedule F. Elon lit the fuse. Schedule F is going to see it through. And if you work in government, you probably should be asking, who's next? Because this single document just made 50,000 more government workers disposable. It's all part of a plan known as Schedule F.

And in the executive order signed on July 17th, it was officially brought back under a new name, Schedule Policy slash Corridor. So here's what the order says. It creates a new class for career employees in positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character. Translation, if your job helps shape or enforce policy, you can now be put on a special list. And once you're on that list, these positions are accepted from the competitive service rules and regulations for removal.

In other words, if you're on a list... on this list, the laws that normally protect your job, they don't apply anymore. This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is a signed executive order dated July 17, 2025, and it's part of the largest government workforce purge in modern U.S. history. So the question is, is this a dangerous power grab, or is it exactly what the government needs? Let's start with what the critics are saying, because the backlash to Schedule F has been immediate and intense. Opponents call it a dangerous power grab, a bureaucratic coup that guts job protections for tens of thousands of civil servants who are supposed to operate independently of

political pressure. The concern is simple. If you work in a role that touches policy, your job can now be reclassified under Schedule F, and that means the next administration can fire you. No hearings, no due process, no protections. And it's already happening. At the Department of Labor, enforcement of minimum wage and overtime laws for home care workers has quietly been suspended. At the Department of Education and Department of Justice, civil rights enforcement offices have been slashed by nearly half in one case and over 70% of attorneys in the other. These aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. These are the watchdogs, the people who enforce civil rights, labor law, food safety, housing discrimination protections. Without them,

entire classes of vulnerable Americans lose recourse. And the agencies we think of as neutral start to mirror the politics of whoever's in charge. But defenders of Schedule F argue that's exactly the point. They say it's about cleaning house, removing embedded ideologues and career bureaucrats who resist change. They argue that the permanent government, what some call the deep state, has grown too powerful, too political, and too insulated from the people actually elected to run the country. And let's be real, whether you love or hate Trump, millions of Americans voted for a government that would take on this fight. Schedule F is one way the administration is making that happen.

The official line? That this is all part of the Department of Government Efficiency, Doge. Remember them? A new initiative to streamline agencies cut waste and reassert executive control. Think of it like a corporate takeover, but the company being restructured is the federal government. So is this smart reform or political retaliation? Well, here's what's happening. At the DOJ, civil rights enforcement has been gutted. At the Consumer Protection Safety Commission, independent oversight is being replaced by political hires. Dei programs have been defunded. Education and housing discrimination enforcement are disappearing, all under the banner of efficiency. Today, President Donald Trump's signed a series of executive orders, eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI government

programs, with a memo going out to federal agencies placing all DEI office staffers on paid leave immediately. The result isn't just fewer employees, it's fewer rules, less oversight, and more power and fewer hands. To some, that's draining the swamp. To others, that's dismantling democracy. So Schedule F, a dangerous purge, or the reboot the system needed. Let me know below what you think. And before I tell you what happened to my friend Byron, here's where things stand right now and where this could go next, because it's already begun.

Multiple federal employee unions have filed lawsuits to block Schedule F. Civil service advocates are pushing Congress to intervene, and there's talk of a legislative repeal, though that's unlikely in a divided government. Meanwhile, watchdog groups are tracking the next wave of terminations and preparing legal challenges for each one. But here's the truth. Even if Schedule F gets repealed later,

the damage may already be done. And we're already seeing the fallout. One of them? My friend, Byron. I've known him since we were kids. He's spent the last 22 years working in federal transportation logistics, specifically with the Department of Transportation's Emergency Response Supply Chain Unit.

His job? Coordinating equipment deliveries during floods. wildfires and hurricanes, not political, not controversial, just critical behind-the-scenes work that helped people in crisis. He wasn't a decision-maker. He wasn't crafting policy, but in the reshuffling of roles post-executive order, his position was flagged as having policy-adjacent influence. Under the new climate, particularly with agencies using Schedule Policy career reclassifications and RIF guidelines, Byron, at 57 years old,

was let go with a probationary termination stamp. No hearing, no misconduct, just cut. He was devastated, not because of the paycheck, but because he was only eight years from full retirement. Under the federal employee retirement system, that's the difference between $30,000 a year for life, or starting over with partial benefits and uncertainty.

The part that really hit, he'd done everything right. He'd shown up, stuck around, and planned for a traditional retirement. It wasn't glamorous, but it was stable until it wasn't. Now Byron's in limbo. Not enough time to pivot to a second career. Too much runway to just sit back and collect partial benefits. And like many others, he's asking the same gut level question. Will my money last? That's the number one fear among retirees. So Byron started exploring outside of conventional retirement planning, not out of desperation, but out of realism. He found Elaine, something built for people like him, decent savings, just no GPS. And before making any moves, he asked the most important question, how much would I actually need to live off of passive income? What he discovered surprised him. It wasn't as much as he thought.

For the first time since losing his job, Byron wasn't scared. He's pretty optimistic right now. Turns out maybe the layoff wasn't the end. Maybe it was his beginning. You know, the whole silver lining thing. Hope is not a financial strategy. Let's get back to work.

This isn't a joke. Four Democrats, Fetterman, Marr, Brown, and Golden just backed Trump. Not on some fringe issue, but on tariffs. on trade. And you probably missed it because nobody wants to talk about what this really means. I want to see more manufacturing and more local consumption of American made goods. And Paris can certainly help with that. I also think right now where we see interest rates starting to come down, inflation a little more under control, there's concerns about unemployment going up.

One way that you can combat that is tariffs, which will put pressure downward on that concern by helping to create more jobs. Generally, when you see a good tariff structure, you will find that you have a high rate of employment. Look, the stock market is at record highs. I know not everybody lives by the stock market, but I also drive around. I don't see a country in the Depression at all.

I see people out there just living their lives. And I would have thought, and I got to own it, that these tariffs were going to sink this economy why this time? And they didn't. I supported tariffs to help steal in Ohio, to help washing machines in Ohio. I've seen terrorists keep of work if they're well thought through. Brown remains the most recognizable Ohio Democrat and would be seen as a formidable candidate for either governor or Senate next year.

Trump is winning the Trey Award. Do you agree with those who think he is? I mean, absolutely. Well, I think that, I mean, I see what happened with the EU. And again, I'm a huge fan of Bill Moore. And I mean, I think he's really one of the oracles for my party. And he acknowledged it. It's like, hey, he thought that the tariffs were going to tank the economy. And he acknowledged that it did.

Because here's what makes this even crazier. It's not just a few outliers. Listen to what the pillars of the Democratic Party were saying just a few years ago. But China benefits with at least, at least. 10 million jobs from U.S.-China trade. If we don't write the rules, China will write the rules out in that region. We will be shut out. American businesses, American agriculture, that will mean a loss of U.S. jobs.

And anyone who goes shopping in a mall knows how difficult it is today to find the product made in America. It is true that too often past trade deals have been sold to the American people with rosy scenarios that did not pan out. and American workers and communities have paid the price. It's also proper for advanced economies like the United States to insist on reciprocity. It is also true that China and other countries have game the system for too long. Unfair trade policies have got to end.

In terms of tariffs, it's think it's interesting to note that the average U.S. MFN. Tariff on Chinese goods coming into the United States is 2%. whereas the average Chinese to MFF on U.S. goods going into China is 35%. Is that reciprocal? The Chinese have enjoyed a huge trade surplus

with the United States, as this chart shows. Every year, it gets larger and larger and larger. If you look at that, China, first row, China, 67%, that's tariffs charged to the USA including currency manipulation and trade barriers.

So we're going to be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34%. I think we've got to get tough with China. I am much closer to President Trump on China than I was to President Bush, Republican, President Obama Democrat, because they let China get away with everything. Given what you heard about Democrats wanting reciprocal tariffs in the past, how come they never did anything about it? Well, that's a great question. Here are five uncomfortable possibilities.

And the fifth one, it's probably the most likely culprit. But sadly, it shouldn't be. And you'll understand why when you hear it. Number one, corporate lobbying, the quiet veto power. You see, tariffs might win votes, but they lose donors. And in Washington, that's a death sentence. The loudest voices in the room weren't factory workers or trade reps. They were lawyers from Apple, bankers from Black Rock, executives from Shanghai.

The revolving door, it spins fast, and no one wants to lose their future board seat. Number two, bipartisan gridlock by design. Democrats call for tariffs. Republicans block it. The Republicans call for tariffs. Democrats block it. And both sides go home to their voters saying, hey, we tried. But what if the system isn't broken?

What if it's working exactly as intended for them? Number three, swing state tightrope. Say tariffs in Michigan cheers from union voters. Say in Iowa, you get panic from corn exporters. So they talk tough to the workers, then whisper the opposite to multinational donors behind closed doors. Because in campaign season, everyone's pro-worker. But when it's time to vote, Wall Street still writes the checks. Number four, the strategic bluff.

The tariff threats? That was the leverage. The bluff was the point. Get China to the table. make headlines, then back down quietly once the cameras leave. That's not leadership. That's diplomacy theater. And America's working class, the stage prop.

And number five, the Trump effect. You see, Trump did it. And that means they couldn't. Because if Trump had said the sky was blue, half of D.C. would have walked around with umbrellas. They still would do that today. That's how broken our politics really is. Not because Trump broke it, but because he exposed it.

And now the silence, it's over. The same people who ghosted tariffs a decade ago are crawling back, quietly, cautiously, because whether they like it or not, tariffs are working for now. Depending on when you're watching this, the political wins may have shifted again. Maybe tariffs are in fashion. Maybe they're under attack. Maybe the narrative changed again. But one thing hasn't changed.

The system is moving fast, and it's moving a way. from us, whether it's tariffs, deficits, interest rates, or the job market, it's becoming clear that we can't just work harder anymore. That's not the answer. We need our money to work harder for us. Because there aren't enough hours in the day to keep up with this machine on our own. And this is the part that they'll never say out loud. You can't outwork inflation or gridlock or corruption, but you can out position it. You know, I was talking the other night to my billionaire friend Mike. And he said something that stuck with me. He said, the money is in the money. And it doesn't even have to be your money, but it has to be money that's working for you,

earning, multiplying, compounding passively. Because people like Mike and the circles that he runs in, don't think about inflation or interest rates or even debt the same way the rest of us do. Ever hear someone say, I have too much money? Me neither. Let's get you some more. Back to the show. George Soros just revealed,

without saying a word, how the rich really prepare for the future. And the biggest lie they've been feeding the public, it's sitting right here in his oil portfolio. He told the world to go, green, to divest from fossil fuels, to save the planet at all costs, but then he quietly bought oil stocks. Lots of them. More than a hedge, not a rumor, a filing with receipts. The man hailed as a savior of the planet is quietly betting against it. And what that reveals about

what's coming is bigger than Soros. And here's what makes this even more fascinating. There may actually be a strategic reason behind all of it that you could use to prepare for what's coming too. In fact, there are five big reasons Soros may have made this move, and we'll get to those in just a second, but the billionaire philanthropist behind some of the world's most aggressive climate initiatives just revealed something shocking in his fund's latest SEC filing. While his organizations push for an end to fossil fuels, his portfolio quietly loaded up on them. Oil companies, natural gas, pipeline stocks, not just a hedge, a full-blown position. For years, Soros has painted himself as a climate savior, backing global climate projects, bankrolling green NGOs,

funding protests against big oil. But now, he's betting that oil wins. Either he never believed the green transition would happen, or he knows it won't, at least not in time. Either way, this is a savior hedging against his own prophecy, and he's not alone. Black Rock's ESG fund added more fossil fuel exposure this year. In ESG, if you don't know, it stands for environmental, social and governance. It's like a scorecard for how responsible a company is. The environmental part asks, hey, do they pollute? The social part asks, do they treat workers and communities fairly? And governance checks if the company is run honestly and transparently. It sounds nice. But sometimes that label doesn't match what's really going on. Major climate donors are quietly shifting capital

into old school energy. Meanwhile, you're being told to ditch your gas car, install solar, and pay green taxes, while the people funding the messaging are hedging their bets with Exxon. So what do they know that we don't? Why are the biggest climate voices preparing for oil's second wind instead of its final gasp? Because let's be real, Soros doesn't just buy stocks. He buys systems. He shapes narratives. He funds movements that shift public behavior while positioning himself on the other side of the trade. And this might be his biggest one yet. So let's break this down, not just to call it out, but to learn from it. Because here are five strategic reasons Soros may have made this move and how everyday investors can apply the same logic. But reason number

five, that's the one no one's talking about. And when you hear it, it's going to flip the whole green narrative on its head. Number one, geopolitical risk equals opportunity. You see, with tension rising in the Middle East and 20% of global oil flowing through the strait of Hormuz, Soros is likely betting that any disruption is going to equal an oil spike. You don't need billions to hedge against global chaos. You just need exposure to the right sectors. Number two, inflation hedging through energy. See, energy stocks, especially midstream oil companies, are proven inflation shields. Soros's positions in pipeline giants are built to ride out inflation while delivering cash flow. And three, he's reading the political tea leaves. You see, with Trump easing drilling regulations and fast-tracking

oil permits. Soros knows the fossil fuel sector isn't going away. It's being reloaded. Number four, this isn't abandoning green. It's bridging it. He might still believe in the transition, but right now, oil is the only thing funding it. So he's riding the cash machine while waiting for green tech to recover. And number five, he's buying infrastructure, not hype. He didn't chase risky exploration stocks. He went for stable, toll booth-style pipeline companies. That's picks and shovels type thinking. So what's the lesson here? Well, you don't need to love oil, but if you understand what it protects you from and what it signals, you might just start thinking like the elites do. Because here's the thing about guys like Soros. They don't just

make bets. They make hedges. They position themselves so that no matter what happens, they're protected. And when it comes to building real wealth, that same mindset, that same derisking approach, It's exactly what separates people who build lasting financial security from those who just chase the next hot thing. I met this guy the other day in a restaurant. His name's Chris. And he's in his mid-40s, works in tech, makes good money, has two kids, a mortgage in suburban Denver, the whole middle-class success story.

But Chris was telling me something that had stuck with me. He said, you know, I feel like I'm playing by the rules, doing everything right. But I'm still one bad market crash away from being screwed. Sound familiar? Kind of a popular story these day. Chris had been watching his 401K bounce around like a pinball. He'd built up some savings, but every time he got ahead, inflation would just eat into it.

His house was worth more on paper, but so was everything else that he needed to buy, just like all of us are experiencing. And he was tired of feeling like his financial future was completely out of his control. And that's when Chris started thinking like Soros thinks, not about making the biggest return, but about controlling the downside.

Instead of chasing the next stop tip or, Crypto moonshot, Chris asked himself, what would protect me no matter what happens? What gives me income that I can count on, regardless of what the market does? And that led into something that most people never consider. Instead of trying to time the market or pick winning stocks, Chris found a way to become the bank, to earn steady returns by lending money to others, secured by real assets, while someone else took on all the risk of ownership. He went from hoping the market would cooperate to getting paid whether it did or didn't. Because when the world's most influential investors start hedging against their own public positions, when they're quietly positioning for scenarios

they're telling you won't happen, that's not hypocrisy. That's strategy. And the question isn't whether you can afford to think like they do. It's whether you can afford not to. Hope is not a financial strategy. Let's get back to work. Is Musk back? I mean, the real question is, did he ever really leave? Because he might be physically gone, but the machine he built lives on. Still working, still cutting budgets, still exposing corruption, still in power. And if you're wondering who's running this now, you're not alone. Because what he started, it's more aggressive, more embedded, and more untouchable than ever. Let me show you how it's going and why no one's talking about it. $199 billion in cuts to date. EPA grant canceled.

for transgender teen pregnancy prevention. A fake contractor, double-billing the feds? Terminated. Doge agents are literally sleeping at the office still, pulling 120-hour work weeks. And this is all after he left. And that's just what we know. So let's rewind and take it from the top

and stick around because once we unpack how this started, I'll fill you in on what's happening right now because there's more, and it's not what you think. So at the beginning, Trump appoints Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency. Doge. The job, root out waste, corruption, and incompetence across every federal agency. He served approximately 130 days from January 20th to May 30th.

But that was enough because what he built, contrary to what most people thought would happen after he left, his machine kept going. And in some ways, it got even stronger without him. Doge didn't die. It multiplied. After he left, Doge did not slow down. It got absorbed into the government bloodstream, now embedded in the U.S. digital service, the GSA and OMB.

Doge teams are still canceling grants, contracts, and federal programs every single week. They even post their kills publicly on the official wall of receipts at Doge.gov, and the cuts are massive. 12,000 contracts terminated, 15,000-plus grants shredded, $199 billion in claimed savings and climbing. Some departments are now scored by how much they've cut. There's literally an interagency leaderboard for government slasher's. Doge didn't fade. It became a sport. So who's running it now? Well, the official title goes to Amy Gleason, acting administrator of Doge.

The White House has finally revealed who is heading the Department of Government Efficiency, Doge. The Trump administration has said that Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the department. But the real engine? Still Musk's original team. 40 plus of Elon's hires are still embedded across federal agencies. Most came from Tesla, SpaceX, or X, and many are unpaid. They answer directly to Doge's embedded command structure inside the executive office of the president. After Elon left, Trump tightened control, but he didn't unplug it. Even his people admit, Doge now operates like a permanent enforcement unit.

So what about the Doge kids? Because you might remember that a lot of Musk's team were barely old enough to rent a car, 19 to 24 years old, zero prior government experience. But now, they're running ops inside a GSA, OPM. Treasury, and more. They still sleep in their offices, they work 120-hour work weeks, they don't recognize weekends. Their job? Cut spending.

Kill bloat. Report back. They write scripts to flag anomalies. They build dashboards to hunt fraud, and they treat inefficiency like malware. Doge was designed to run like a startup inside the government, and it still does. Here's what Doge has uncovered after Musk walked out the door. $620,000 grant for transgender teen pregnancy prevention. canceled. 664,000 DEI pipeline project for engineers.

Cancelled. $8 million ice contract initially misreported as $8 billion in savings, but they killed it anyway. Inactive grants still dispersing funds. Frozen. Fraudulent leasing contractor. Terminated. DOGE has also flagged billions in improper payments from Medicaid overpays to welfare duplication. Agencies are now preemptively slashing their own budgets to stay off DOJ's radar.

Even the IRS says Doge cuts could reduce future tax collections by $500 billion because there won't be enough agents to audit. Translation, the watchdog is biting harder than anyone expected, and it's doing it with eyes wide open. In a 6'3 decision, the Supreme Court granted Doge unfettered access to millions of Social Security records, including financial and medical data. Supporters say it's a tool for catching fraud. 514, and we have some breaking news for you here at 5. The Supreme Court now is allowing the Department of Government Efficiency or Doge to access social security data. President Trump's administration asked the justices to lift an injunction which kept Doge from looking at those records. Well, Doge wanted access to the data on millions of Americans as those employees tried to pinpoint fraud.

Critics say it's a surveillance tool on steroids. Either way, it's unprecedented and barely anyone's talking about it. And when you hear stories like that fake contractor double-billing the feds, those aren't just hypotheticals. They echo real cases like Booz Allen's $377 million fraud settlement from 2003. This isn't new corruption. It's just finally being caught. Now, federal judges questioned whether Musk's original role was even legal. Congress opened multiple investigations.

But the Supreme Court gave Doge cover, ruling that it could withhold internal records from the public. One Doge employee went rogue and used an official. account to attack a Musk critic. He was fired. Trump's team is watching the loyalists now. But even with Musk gone, nobody's been able to stop it. You know, just a couple weeks ago on July 17th, President Trump signed a new executive order that reasserts Schedule F authority as part of a broader civil service overhaul. While it introduced Schedule G, the real muscle remains Schedule F, the original mechanism designed to purge the swamp. And it doesn't by reclassifying federal employees and making it easier to fire underperformers and bureaucratic blockers.

And now, it's back with a vengeance. According to early estimates, at least 50,000 government employees are now on notice. The message is clear. The purge, it's about to begin again. And it's turned into somewhat of a contagion because more than 25 states are now copying Doge. You got Texas, North Dakota, South Carolina, all launching their own government efficiency programs. AI tools are scanning state budgets for redundancy and bloat.

Doge isn't just a federal program anymore. It's a blueprint for how to tear down bureaucracy nationwide. Musk may have left the building, but the algorithm he coded into Washington, the culture, the hires, the mandates are all still operating. And they may be even more dangerous without him. He lit the fuse. Schedule F is finishing the job. This machine is still running, and no one's been able to stop it. Hey, quick thing before you go, I'm doing something pretty crazy this month.

It's actually kind of weird. I'm flying 10 people to Vegas. on my dime and giving them my entire real estate business in a box. The same system that got me out of the rat race in under four years and built it up to 350 units beyond that. And I know this is one of the more ridiculous offers I've ever made, if not the most, but spots are filling up fast, as you could imagine. So if you're thinking there's a catch, though, you're right.

I can only take 10 people total and you need at least a 680 credit score because there will be business financing available. So if you're curious, check to see if spots are still available. or don't. It's not for everyone. I'll see you next time. Take care. And that wraps up the epic show. If you found this episode valuable, who else do you know that might too? There's a really good chance you know someone else who would. And when their name comes to mind, please share it with them and ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here and I'll take great care of them. God loves you and so do I.

Health, peace, blessings and success to you. I'm Matt Terrio. Living the dream. Yeah, yeah, we got cash boat. You didn't know home world. We got to gas. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.

This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.